Wednesday, August 29, 2012

The other day I was reading Sandra's blog "Madsnapper" where she was upset about the prices of bread and grapes that she had bought that day. I couldn't help comparing them with our ridiculous prices for food. Our dollar has soared over the last few years and is now worth more than the US dollar.

This is making it hard for people wanting to export their wares and it is making it very unattractive for tourists to come here. This is causing problems as we depend a lot on tourism. We have a beautiful/interesting country, even though some say we lack history and culture, we still used to attract millions of visitors. I don't want to put anyone off visiting but I just want Sandra and others to know how well off they are with their food prices. We tried to take shots with our phones in the local supermarket without being seen which is a little difficult so the shots are not good but still may tell the story.

One loaf of sliced wholegrain bread 700g,( nearly 2 lbs) $4.59

3 litres (about 5. 5 pints) of milk $5.19

Seedless grapes $12.94 kg (2.2lbs) imported from USA (it is out of season for ours which do get cheaper in season.) Just look at the quality too, they were probably great when they left USA but now they are half rotten. My shot of the tomatoes at $10 kg didn't turn out. There was a sign next to the tomatoes saying the store apologises for the lack of tomatoes as there is a shortage at the markets. They are usually about $4 to $5 kg.

Another reason our food prices are high is because we only have 2 big supermarket companies, Coles and Woolworths. They have very little competition so they can get away with putting up their prices. Now you know why we're trying to grow our own veggies.

One good thing about our country for tourists is that we don't have to pay gratuities to anyone although you can if you want to.

For those following my blog, I am pleased to tell you that Sonya and Bernie arrived home in LA safely, the babies were well behaved on the plane. They all slept for 4 hours when they arrived home. Then they started adjusting bed times for the boys so they would be able get over jet lag.
The good news is that Bernie got offered two TV roles within the first week back so that is encouraging. I'll tell you more about them when everything is finalised.